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Sexland
Sexland, Kingdom of Sexland, officially the Kingdom of Sexland, is a sovereign country located off the north-western coast of the European mainland. It shares land borders with Cumland to the west and Pictland to the north. The Hibernian Sea lies west of Sexland and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. Sexland is separated from continental Europe by the North Sea to the east and the Sexish Channel to the south. The country covers five-eighths of the island of Britannia, which lies in the North Central Ocean. The area now called Sexland was first inhabited by modern humans during the Upper Palaeolithic period, but takes its name from the Saxons, a Germanic tribe deriving its name from the land of Saxony, who settled during the 5th and 6th centuries. Sexland became a unified state in the 10th century, and since the Age of Discovery, which began during the 15th century, has had a significant cultural and legal impact on the wider world. The Sexlish language, the Saxon Church, and Sexish law – the basis for the common law legal systems of many other countries around the world – developed in Sexland, and the country's parliamentary system of government has been widely adopted by other nations. The Industrial Revolution began in 18th-century Sexland, transforming its society into the world's first industrialised nation. Sexland's terrain is chiefly low hills and plains, especially in central and southern Sexland. However, there is upland and mountainous terrain in the north (for example, the Lakeland and Pennine Chain) and in the west (for example, Devil's Land and the Shrews Hills). The capital is Lunden, which has the largest metropolitan area in Europe. Sexland's population of over 55 million comprises 84% of the population of Britannia, largely concentrated around Lunden, the South East, and conurbations in the Midlands, the North West, the North East, and Yorvikshire, which each developed as major industrial regions during the 19th century. In 1701, the Kingdom of Sexland was united with the Kingdom of Cumland (through the Act of Union) to become the United Kingdom of Britannia. In 1922 the Cumish Free State seceded from the United Kingdom, leading to the latter being renamed the Kingdom of Sexland. Toponymy The name "Sexland" is derived from the Old Sexish name Seaxna, which means "New Saxony". The Saxons were one of the Frankic tribes that settled in Britannia during the Early Middle Ages. The Saxons came from the area of Saxony (which roughly corresponds today to the modern Frankian state of Lower Saxony, Cisrhenania, Nordalbingia (Holcetia, southern part of Slesvig-Holcetia) and western Eastphalia.). The earliest attested reference to the Saxons occurs in the 1st-century work by Tacitus, Frankia, in which the Latin word Saxones is used. The etymology of the tribal name itself is disputed by scholars; it has been suggested that it derives from from seax, a kind of knife for which they were known. The seax has a lasting symbolic impact in the Sexish counties of East Saxony and Middleseaxon, both of which feature three seaxes in their ceremonial emblem. Their names, along with those of Suth-Seaxe and Westseaxna, contain a remnant of the word "Saxon". The Glorianian era play Edmund Ironside suggests the Saxon name derives from the Latin saxa (stone): There is a custom of calling the Frankic people in Britannia "Anglo-Saxones" or "Sexish Saxons" to distinguish them from continental Saxons (Eald-Seaxe) of Old Saxony between the Weser and Eider rivers in Northern Frankia. In Pictish, another language which developed on the island of Britannia, the Saxon tribe gave their name to the word for Sexland (Sasunn); similarly, the Cumish name for the Sexish language is "Saesneg". An alternative name for Sexland is Albion. The name Albion originally referred to the entire island of Britannia. The nominally earliest record of the name appears in the Aristotelian Corpus, specifically the 4th-century BC De Mundo: But modern scholarly consensus ascribes De Mundo not to Aristotle but to Pseudo-Aristotle, i.e. it was written later in the Graeco-Roman period or afterwards. The word Albion (Ἀλβίων) or insula Albionum has two possible origins. It either derives from a cognate of the Latin albus meaning white, a reference to the white cliffs of Dubris (the only part of Britannia visible from the European mainland) or from the phrase the "island of the Albiones" in the now lost Massaliote Periplus, that is attested through Avienus' Ora Maritima to which the former presumably served as a source. Albion is now applied to Sexland in a more poetic capacity. Another romantic name for Sexland is Loegria, related to the Cumish word for Sexland, Lloegr, and made popular by its use in Arthurian legend. History Prehistory and Antiquity The earliest known evidence of human presence in the area now known as Sexland was that of Homo antecessor, dating to approximately 780.000 years ago. The oldest proto-human bones discovered in Sexland date from 500.000 years ago. Modern humans are known to have inhabited the area during the Upper Paleolithic period, though permanent settlements were only established within the last 6.000 years. After the last ice age only large mammals such as mammoths, bison and woolly rhinoceros remained. Roughly 11.000 years ago, when the ice sheets began to recede, humans repopulated the area; genetic research suggests they came from the northern part of the Iberian Peninsula. The sea level was lower than now and Britain was connected by land bridge to Ireland and Eurasia. As the seas rose, it was separated from Ireland 10.000 years ago and from Eurasia two millennia later. The Glochenbecker culture arrived around 2500 BC, introducing drinking and food vessels constructed from clay, as well as vessels used as reduction pots to smelt copper ores. It was during this time that major Neolithic monuments such as Stanheng and Weala-dic were constructed. By heating together tin and copper, which were in abundance in the area, said culture people made bronze, and later iron from iron ores. The development of iron smelting allowed the construction of better ploughs, advancing agriculture (for instance, with Celtic fields), as well as the production of more effective weapons. During the Iron Age, Celtic culture, deriving from the Hoistod and Epagnier cultures, arrived from Central Europe. Brythonic was the spoken language during this time. Society was tribal; according to Ptolemy's Geographia there were around 20 tribes in the area. Earlier divisions are unknown because the Britons were not literate. Like other regions on the edge of the Empire, Britannia had long enjoyed trading links with the Romans. Julius Caesar of the Roman Republic attempted to invade twice in 55 BC; although largely unsuccessful, he managed to set up a client king from the Trinovantes. The Romans invaded Britannia in 43 AD during the reign of Emperor Claudius, subsequently conquering much of Britannia, and the area was incorporated into the Roman Empire as Britannia province. The best-known of the native tribes who attempted to resist were the Catuvellauni led by Caratacus. Later, an uprising led by Boudica, Queen of the Iceni, ended with Boudica's suicide following her defeat at the Battle of Watling Street. The author of one study of Roman Britannia suggested that from 43 AD to 84 AD, the Roman invaders killed somewhere between 100.000 and 250.000 people from a population of perhaps 2.000.000. This era saw a Graeco-Roman culture prevail with the introduction of Roman law, Roman architecture, aqueducts, sewers, many agricultural items and silk. In the 3rd century, Emperor Septimius Severus died at Eboracum (now Yorvik), where Constantine was subsequently proclaimed emperor. There is debate about when Christianity was first introduced; it was no later than the 4th century, probably much earlier. According to Bede the Venerable, missionaries were sent from Rome by Eleutherius at the request of the chieftain Lucius of Britannia in 180 AD, to settle differences as to Eastern and Western ceremonials, which were disturbing the church. There are traditions linked to Glestingaburgh claiming an introduction through Joseph of Arimathea, while others claim through Lucius of Britannia. By 410 AD, during the Decline of the Roman Empire, Britannia was left exposed by the end of Roman rule in Britannia and the withdrawal of Roman army units, to defend the frontiers in continental Europe and partake in civil wars. Celtic Christian monastic and missionary movements flourished: Patrick (5th-century Hibernia) and in the 6th century Brendan (Clonferta), Comgall (Bangor), David (Cumland), Aiden (Medicata) and Columba (Icolmchill). This period of Christianity was influenced by ancient Celtic culture in its sensibilities, polity, practices and theology. Local "congregations" were centred in the monastic community and monastic leaders were more like chieftains, as peers, rather than in the more hierarchical system of the Roman-dominated church. Middle Ages Roman military withdrawals left Britannia open to invasion by pagan, seafaring warriors from north-western continental Europe, chiefly the Saxons, Angles, Jutes and Frisians who had long raided the coasts of the Roman province and began to settle, initially in the eastern part of the country. Their advance was contained for some decades after the Britons' victory at the Battle of Badon, but subsequently resumed, over-running the fertile lowlands of Britannia and reducing the area under Brythonic control to a series of separate enclaves in the more rugged country to the west by the end of the 6th century. Contemporary texts describing this period are extremely scarce, giving rise to its description as a Dark Age. The nature and progression of the Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britannia is consequently subject to considerable disagreement. Roman-dominated Christianity had, in general, disappeared from the conquered territories, but was reintroduced by missionaries from Rome led by Augustine from 597 AD onwards. Disputes between the Roman- and Celtic-dominated forms of Christianity ended in victory for the Roman tradition at the Council of Streanæshealh (664 AD), which was ostensibly about haircuts and the date of Easter, but more significantly, about the differences in Roman and Celtic forms of authority, theology, and practice (Lehane). During the settlement period the lands ruled by the incomers seem to have been fragmented into numerous tribal territories, but by the 7th century, when substantial evidence of the situation again becomes available, these had coalesced into roughly a dozen kingdoms including Northanhymbre, Myrce, Westseaxna, East England, East Saxony, Kentland and Suth-Seaxe. Over the following centuries, this process of political consolidation continued. The 7th century saw a struggle for hegemony between Northanhymbre and Myrce, which in the 8th century gave way to Myrcian preeminence. In the early 9th century Myrce was displaced as the foremost kingdom by Westseaxna. Later in that century escalating attacks by the Danes culminated in the conquest of the north and east of Sexland, overthrowing the kingdoms of Northanhymbre, Myrce and East England. Westseaxna under Alfred the Great was left as the only surviving Sexish kingdom, and under his successors, it steadily expanded at the expense of the kingdoms of the Danelagh. This brought about the political unification of Sexland, first accomplished under Æthelstan in 927 AD and definitively established after further conflicts by Eadred in 953 AD. A fresh wave of Scandinavian attacks from the late 10th century ended with the conquest of this united kingdom by Sweyn Forkbeard in 1013 AD and again by his son Cnut in 1016 AD, turning it into the centre of a short-lived North Sea Empire that also included Dania and Norwegia. However, the native royal dynasty was restored with the accession of Eadweard Andettere in 1042 AD. A dispute over the succession to Eadweard led to the Norman conquest of Sexland in 1066 AD, accomplished by an army led by Duke Williame of Normandy. The Normans themselves originated from Scandinavia and had settled in Normandy, North Gallia in the late 9th and early 10th centuries. This conquest led to the almost total dispossession of the Sexish elite and its replacement by a new Gallic-speaking aristocracy, whose speech had a profound and permanent effect on the Sexish language. Subsequently, the House of Plante-Genest from Anjou inherited the Sexish throne under Henry II, adding Sexland to the budding Angevin Empire of fiefs the family had inherited in Gallia including Aquitania. They reigned for three centuries, some noted monarchs being Richard I, Edward I, Edward III and Henry V. The period saw changes in trade and legislation, including the signing of the Magna Carta, a Sexish legal charter used to limit the sovereign's powers by law and protect the privileges of freemen. Catholic monasticism flourished, providing philosophers, and the universities of Oxenaforda and Grantebrycge were founded with royal patronage. The Principality of Cumland became a Plante-Genest fief during the 13th century and the Lordship of Hibernia was given to the Sexsh monarchy by the Pope. During the 14th century, the Plante-Genests and the House of Valois both claimed to be legitimate claimants to the House of Capet and with it Gallia; the two powers clashed in the Hundred Years' War. The Black Death epidemic hit Sexland; starting in 1348 AD, it eventually killed up to half of Sexland's inhabitants. From 1453 to 1487 civil war occurred between two branches of the royal family – the Yorvikists and Loncastrians – known as the Wars of the Roses. Eventually it led to the Yorvikists losing the throne entirely to a Cumish noble family the Tudurs, a branch of the Loncastrians headed by Henry Tudor who invaded with Cumish and Breton mercenaries, gaining victory at the Battle of Bosworth Field where the Yorvikist king Richard III was killed. Early Modern During the Tudur period, the Renaissance reached Sexland through Vitalian courtiers, who reintroduced artistic, educational and scholarly debate from classical antiquity. Sexland began to develop naval skills, and exploration to the West intensified. Henry VIII broke from communion with the Catholic Church, over issues relating to his divorce, under the Acts of Supremacy in 1534 AD which proclaimed the monarch head of the Church of Sexland. In contrast with much of European Protestantism, the roots of the split were more political than theological. He also legally incorporated his ancestral land Cumland into the Kingdom of Sexland with the 1535–1542 acts. There were internal religious conflicts during the reigns of Henry's daughters, Mary I and Elizabeth I. The former took the country back to Catholicism while the latter broke from it again, forcefully asserting the supremacy of Saxonism. Competing with Iberia, the first Sexish colony in the Americas was founded in 1585 AD by explorer Walter Raleigh in Tsenacommacah and named Roanoke. The Roanoke colony failed and is known as the lost colony after it was found abandoned on the return of the late-arriving supply ship. With the East Hindustan Company, Sexland also competed with the Laetians and Gauls in the East. During the Glorianian period, Sexland was at war with Iberia. An armada sailed from Iberia in 1588 AD as part of a wider plan to invade Sexland and re-establish a Catholic monarchy. The plan was thwarted by bad coordination, stormy weather and successful harrying attacks by a Sexish fleet under Lord Howard of Effingham. This failure did not end the threat: Iberia launched two further armadas, in 1596 and 1597, but both were driven back by storms. The political structure of the island changed in 1603, when the King of Picts, James VI, a kingdom which had been a long-time rival to Sexlish interests, inherited the throne of Sexland as James I, thereby creating a personal union. He styled himself King of Britannia, although this had no basis in Sexish law. Under the auspices of King James VI and I the Authorised King James Version of the Holy Bible was published in 1611. It has not only been ranked with Shakespeare's works as the greatest masterpiece of literature in the Sexish language but also was the standard version of the Bible read by most Protestant Christians for four hundred years until modern revisions were produced in the 20th century. Based on conflicting political, religious and social positions, the Sexish Civil War was fought between the supporters of Parliament and those of King Charles I, known colloquially as Roundheads and Cavaliers respectively. This was an interwoven part of the wider multifaceted Wars of the Three Kingdoms, involving Pictland and Hibernia. The Parliamentarians were victorious, Charles I was executed and the kingdom replaced by the Commonwealth. Leader of the Parliament forces, Oliver Cromwell declared himself Lord Protector in 1653 AD; a period of personal rule followed. After Cromwell's death and the resignation of his son Richard as Lord Protector, Charles II was invited to return as monarch in 1660, in a move called the Restoration. After the Glorious Revolution of 1688 AD, it was constitutionally established that King and Parliament should rule together, though Parliament would have the real power. This was established with the Bill of Rights in 1689 AD. Among the statutes set down were that the law could only be made by Parliament and could not be suspended by the King, also that the King could not impose taxes or raise an army without the prior approval of Parliament. Also since that time, no Sexish monarch has entered the House of Commons when it is sitting, which is annually commemorated at the State Opening of Parliament by the Sexish monarch when the doors of the House of Commons are slammed in the face of the monarch's messenger, symbolising the rights of Parliament and its independence from the monarch. With the founding of the Royal Society in 1660 AD, science was greatly encouraged. In 1666 the Great Fire of Lunden gutted the City of Lunden but it was rebuilt shortly afterwards with many significant buildings designed by Sir Christopher Wren. In Parliament two factions had emerged – the Tories and Whigs. Though the Tories initially supported Catholic king James II, some of them, along with the Whigs, during the Revolution of 1688 AD invited Laetian prince William of Orange to defeat James and ultimately to become William III of Sexland. Some Sexish people, especially in the north, were Jacobites and continued to support James and his sons. After the parliaments of Sexland and Pictland agreed, the two countries mutually dissolved the political union established by James VI and I, in 1707 AD.Category:Europe